This movie, though flawed is definitely worth seeing. Definitely the love triangle overtakes the murder in significance. That is OK in itself but it means that the details of the murder are dealt with and wrapped up rather sloppily. At least another 10 minutes or so could have rounded things out much better. They seemed in a hurry to make their points. Also, I will never buy into the movie habit which sees so many people fall seriously in love in a few hours of real time.
The cinematography works well in black and white and delivers a good feel.
The race relations theme was bravely and openly addressed. Placing the East Asian man as a real romantic force, as opposed to a menace or threat, was still adventurous at the time for Hollywood. (East Asian women, on the other hand, had been well established as legitimate love interests)
Hollywood seemed to have been very interested in making James Shigeta into a star male lead. He was given a number of lead roles in the late 50s/early 60s but then they pushed him off into supporting roles. I can see why. It was a chore to come up with plausible roles for him that the public of the day would buy into. More fundamentally, he struggled at time with his delivery. Here, both he and Corbett are forced to deliver a good bit of overdone jargon. Corbett, who was never a big star nonetheless handles it better than Shigeta. He didn't deliver with the kind of strength that a lead role generally requires.
The cinematography works well in black and white and delivers a good feel.
The race relations theme was bravely and openly addressed. Placing the East Asian man as a real romantic force, as opposed to a menace or threat, was still adventurous at the time for Hollywood. (East Asian women, on the other hand, had been well established as legitimate love interests)
Hollywood seemed to have been very interested in making James Shigeta into a star male lead. He was given a number of lead roles in the late 50s/early 60s but then they pushed him off into supporting roles. I can see why. It was a chore to come up with plausible roles for him that the public of the day would buy into. More fundamentally, he struggled at time with his delivery. Here, both he and Corbett are forced to deliver a good bit of overdone jargon. Corbett, who was never a big star nonetheless handles it better than Shigeta. He didn't deliver with the kind of strength that a lead role generally requires.